Or as it is otherwise known – reading the instructions.

I bought a digital SLR camera before we travelled overseas last year.  I have downloaded the instruction manual which is about 350 pages, however, I have barely read it and have just used the camera on the automatic settings.

Last night I decided that I really should figure out how to use the self-timer on the camera.  I read the instructions several times, set up the camera on the tripod and hey, presto!  I managed to take a reasonable photograph of my self wearing my new skirt.

The thing that I find most difficult about instructions of any kind is trying to assimilate information that I am not necessarily about to use.  Just reading something about a particular process or technique and trying to store it for future refence tends to be fairly useless in my experience.

Having used the self-timer function several times in my quest to get a reasonable photograph, I am fairly confident that I will be able to recall this process when I next want to use it.